Climate Change

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

For a front-page article, Brianna Bailey’s article on sea levels (“As sea level rises, unease follows,” Feb. 6) was being way too politically correct when she started the article with “Whether or not climate change is to blame....” She does not dispute that the sea level is rising and neither does anyone else — it is being measured all the time. Some parts of the world are already being flooded. To beg the question of whether climate change is to blame is too P.C. Of course it is to blame!

UCI students kicked off the election season with a panel discussion on the 2008 campaign Monday evening, featuring a speaker’s panel that included local politicos, academics and party operatives. The event, organized by Associated Students of UCI, drew just under 100 people. Speakers included Irvine Mayor Beth Krom, Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley, UCI’s Director of Unconventional Security Affairs Richard Matthew, UCI history professor Jon Wiener, Republican Party Chairman’s Appointee Adam D. Probolsky and Democratic Chairman Frank Barbaro.

Re. " Commentary: Outsourcing trash collection would save $17M I read the commentary by Mayor Keith Curry and Councilman Michael Henn Sunday morning and feel compelled to vehemently disagree with their views. Newport Beach spends money on frivolous "pet projects" with an abandon that defies belief, i.e. an estimated $75,000 for the study of airport flight paths, which information was freely available from local pilots. The proposal to hire an expensive executive-recruiting firm to help with the process of hiring a new library services director when the city has a competent human resources department, and even without them, not resorting to modern day ways — the Internet, which last time I checked didn't cost anything.

Brian Fagan, professor emeritus of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara, will give a talk on environmental reform at 7 tonight at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum as part of the museum’s Waterman Lecture Series. Fagan wrote the book “The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations.” His lecture is titled “The Great Warming: Land, Oceans and the Story of the Silent Elephant in the Room.” The talk will examine the current policies of the California Water Resources Department and environmental reform.

Drought years, cutting down trees, emitting more carbon dioxide, and a warming planet are viciously entangled in equatorial Asia, according to an international study that includes a UCI scientist. The study, which analyzes fire and climate observations of places like Borneo, Sumatra and New Guinea from satellites, shows that during drought years, far more acres of forest are cleared by fire. This, in turn, releases vast amounts of carbon dioxide, which climate scientists point to as the major culprit in climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently denied California’s request to use its own law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, prompting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to threaten a lawsuit against the federal government. President Bush defended the EPA decision, arguing that his administration was pursuing a “more effective” national effort and that the energy bill he recently signed lessens the need for states to take action individually.

California on its own as an independent nation would have the seventh largest economy in the world. All the more reason, Prince Andrew, duke of York said, to strengthen economic ties between the two markets, especially those between the U.K. and Orange County. “The GDP of Orange County is greater than that of either Portugal or Finland,” he said. “[The U.K. and Orange County are] natural partners.” Prince Andrew addressed a luncheon of about 730 local executives, hosted by the British American Business Council of Orange County at the Orange County Hilton.

As a resident of Huntington Street, I live with the smoke and soot caused by the incessant daily beach fires. It's horrible; the air quality is being adversely affected. My window sills are black with the soot from the fires. My screens are black, my house is black, and I have to hose the house down weekly. I live in Huntington Beach, so I can get some nice ocean air. The people who come here burn anything they can get their hands on — railroad ties, plastic, contaminated wood products, anything that is free and can burn.

NEWPORT BEACH - As people stroll Balboa Island's picturesque waterfront, some wonder how much one of those cozy cottages cost. City officials think about another price tag: how much it will take to defend those homes against rising sea levels. City engineers revealed last month that it could cost about $60 million to replace Balboa Island's aging seawalls, or residents could risk more high tides washing into their streets and homes. The low-lying island, which is 4 to 8 feet above sea level, is only a small portion of coastal communities' looming problems from climate change.

COSTA MESA — Following a "low-carbon diet" would help reduce the Earth's carbon footprint, but it can also taste better, Vera Chang said. To prove her point, she brought in small plastic glasses filled with orange juice and orange soda and two kinds of bread and jam for the audience to taste in her low-carbon diet workshop. One woman got more in her cup than she bargained for. "It's very low carbon, it's just a little bug," Chang laughed. Chang, who works for Bon Appétit Management Co., taught two workshops on what makes foods high carbon and what foods to eat that are better for the Earth.